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The Choice Band set that makes Heracross such scary force. A STABed Banded Megahorn or Close Combat will do tons of damage. Even some Flying Pokemon will take a major chunk of damage from those two attacks. As if that wasn't enough, Heracross still has Stone Edge for any Fliers. Many Pokemon are scared of Heracross and will immediately switch out when they see it. Pursuit catches those Pokemon as they try to escape and can do a lot of damage that way.

The Choice Scarf set won't do as much damage, but the item gives it a big
Speed boost that allows it to outrun most opponents including ones that
would normally give it trouble. Moxie is a pretty good ability for gaining
extra Attack boosts without worrying about Speed issues that the Choice
Band set sometimes has.

This set takes longer to set up since it uses Swords Dance. But it has the
potential to deal more damage than the CBer if you can get it properly set up.
It also allows you the ability to switch moves, unlike the Choice sets.

A SubSalac sweeper. Swords Dance up and bring your HP down until Salac Berry activates. At that stage, Swarm also kicks in and boosts your Megahorn's power. Having an HP number divisible by 4 is required for this set, since Salac will activate upon using your third Sub. After you're all set up, sweep your foes to death. This is rather tricky to set up but the pay off is great and it can catch your opponent off guard.

Heracross is simply great, lots of great move sets with this guy. Set number 1 has to be the best, STABd / Choicebanded Close Combat and Megahorn is incredible

FC Code: 3482-2712-9159

Spoiler:- Truth is...:

Im saving these forums all in the name of chocolatey goodness!

Originally Posted by Venomfang

We don't need to make Ash look like a ******* because he already is one.

Ah Heracross, would we have ever wanted you burned in 2nd gen? Nope. But things change, so here's what we got. Swords Dance is for the turn you wait for the burn. It's a good idea to to Baton Pass him a sub so he can survive the turn. Close Combat is to take down Ferrothorn. Any Heracross needs Megahorn, which is basically it's signature move. That's like having Magikarp without Splash!
*ahem*, Anywho, the move we care about is Facade. Swords Dance has made all his moves strong, but now Flame Orb comes in. Guts is going to make Close Combat and Megahorn annihilate anything it their path, but Facade ALSO gets a boost from Flame Orb. With attack raised by two stages, Facade damage rate at 140, AND a 1.5 raise from Guts, Facade is one of the most powerful moves you could ever think of!

You have been blessed with the gratitude of reading the Other Gyarados's post. May you have luck in the future.

I know people are trying to be original, but you cannot make a poke with 125 attack and 40 special attack a special attacker. It's just such a waste, as it could be doing much more damage. Also, many sub/reversal pokes are screwed by weather, but does that make them bad? Every team you encounter is not gonna be sand, and if you're really worried, run drizzletoad with hera to- 1:weaken fire attacks and 2: no damage. The most dominant sets here seem to be banded and scarfed heras, the sub three attack hera, the 1 HP reversal hera, and set up hera. Toxic stall may be able to do something, as steel types don't like to switch in on a 125 atk poke with STAB CC, but I really don't think the specs would work. I did some calcs, and a choice specs max special attack modest hera's HYPER BEAM doesn't even kill an unown with some HP investment. Maximum damage: 282, Unown's max HP: 300, and that's UNOWN!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, here's my gimmick set to add (sort of a build on the toxic set):
GET WRECKED!!!!!!!!!!!! slowly...........

95 base special defense is functional off of, so putting some investment there allows hera to take some special hits. However, this leaves hera's defense at a not-so-great level. That's where iron defense comes in, boosting your defense two stages. Now you can begin to annoy your opponent-take off their item, then begin toxic stall them. Your last set is whatever you want. Protect to stall, substitute to avoid status and really become a pain to walls, or counter after a few boosts to hurt their physical attackers.

This set takes longer to set up since it uses Swords Dance. But it has the
potential to deal more damage than the CBer if you can get it properly set up.
It also allows you the ability to switch moves, unlike the Choice sets.

Toxic orb is now a better option over flame orb most of the time as it now does the same damage as flame orb for the first three turns before starting to rack up. You'll probably switch before your three turns are up.

Edit: for some reason I confused hera with ursarang, idk why XD usually you should only use toxic orb on poison heal pokes and quick feet physical attackers, as quick feet doesn't cancel out burns attack halving effect, which is what ursarang has (quick feet boosts your speed with a status)

Pinsir is my favorite pokemon, so naturally I have a warm place in my heart designed to make Heracross burst into flames. I'll list some partners and counters though, since I'm not going to let my personal disdain for Heracross stop me from contributing. I believe all of the move sets have been covered already anyway.

Partners for Heracross

A good number of Heracross counters are Flying Type, so Ice Beam helps. Stone Edge won't cover most "guarenteed" Heracross counters, like Gliscor, so the Ice coverage is needed. Most things that counter Gliscor make good partners though, basically. If you want to have firepower though, ChoiceCross hits super effects on 11/17, so you can try pokemon that hit the 6/17; Water, Electric, Fighting, Poison, Ground, and Dragon. Something that carries Ice Beam takes two of those, Psychic takes another two, and Thunderbolt takes out one more. Starmie, Lapras, and Porygon-Z carry all three. For outright beamers: Froslass, Sigilyph, and every special water type.

Counters for Heracross

Gliscor and Landorus are the two best counters. They resist his two STABs, take neutrals from Stone Edge, and just outright destroy it. Flying attacks do x4 damage, though those are few in quantity because their coverage is eh at best. The paraflinchers immediately stand out though, as do the others that usually carry Air Slash or Hurricane: Sigilyph, Togekiss, Rotom-F, Yanmega, Swoobat, Tornadus, Emolga, and Dragonite. Fire types have Stone Edge to worry about, but some Flamethrower carriers work wonders. Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Slowbro, Octillery, Manetric, Zoroark, etc. Finally, we have Psychic types... but only if they are faster. Alakazam, Mew, Espeon, Latis, Azelf, Victini, and Meloetta.

Toxic orb is now a better option over flame orb most of the time as it now does the same damage as flame orb for the first three turns before starting to rack up, as well as not lowering your attack. You'll probably switch before your three turns are up.

Summary: heracross was fine ever since 2nd gen when it was first introduced, but always seemed to carry some weaknesses with it. At first they had no way to cover almost any of them ,but 3rd gen brought it some counters but not many. 4th gen only gave it close combat, which, with somewhat low defences and many weaknesses, along with air cutter and air slash special moves, wasn't
really worth it. 5th gen did give it smack down to cover bounce and fly, but heracross needs chance to make that work out. I guess this thing is okay. Looks cool, to. but those looks make it look very defensive, so i don't know...Counter Weaknesses
*megahorn*
*smack down/rock slide/stone edge
*earthquake
*close combat/brick break/facade
*item: life orb/muscle band/flame orb
*ability:guts/swarm
*nature: adament(+attack, -sp. attack)
really, you'll want some weakness coverage in case your put up against something heracross cant take well. luckily, there are only three weaknesses to counter, with megahorn clearing psychic pokemon, the rock moves cleaning fire and flying, flying heracrosses worst weakness, and earthquake beating most fire types. with guts, having double power and facade will clean most other pokemon, but otherwise, close combat lowers defence/sp. defence, while brick break destroies worthless barriers no one uses. really, the trouble for others comes with the weakness counter moves. the others are mostly there... to be there.

Pretty much the set I wanted to give but with Sleep Talk over Pursuit. Pursuit hits like, Mismagius I guess but she almost always runs some substitute + CM / NP set so it's still useless. Sleep Talk allows you to come in on potent UU threats like Roserade, Tangrowth, and Venemoth with ease and begin firing off fast and powerful moves. And with this generation's new sleep mechanics, it works even better than before.

Almost classic Heracross.
- Close Combat
- Mega Horn
- Stone Edge
- Night Slash/Shadow claw
Ability: Guts/Moxie
Item: Choice Scarf / Band or Life/toxic/Flame orb
Evs and Nature:
252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Jolly nature [+Spe, -SpA] or Adamant nature [+Atk, - SpA]
Use Close Combat for 180 base power (With STAB) and smash Rock, normal and other stuff.
Mega Horn is your main move with only 85 accuracy and no cost.
Stone edge is to kill your nemesis flying type.
While shadow claw/night slash has high Crit rate and reliable accuracy to kill psychic.
Use Moxie with Choice Scarf to out speed your enemy or Choice Band to hit harder or with life orb to hit harder and not get stuck with one move.
Or just use the classic Guts with either flame/toxic orb to activate Guts instantly or use life orb.

This set is the one I mainly use. Basically, the tactic is to get Heracross Bulky and Powerful at once, by using Bulk up two or three times. Then, he can withstand some hefty hits, especially with his Max HP evs, whilst at the same time being very strong offensively with two STAB 120 Power moves and the Versatile Earthquake or the Powerful but not veyr accurate Stone Edge that deals with his Flying weakness well. Focus Sash helps prevent an early Knockout, allowing at least one Bulk Up to come off without a hitch.
Quick Claw means Heracross can at times pull of a quick KO on the opponent.

This set is the one I mainly use. Basically, the tactic is to get Heracross Bulky and Powerful at once, by using Bulk up two or three times. Then, he can withstand some hefty hits, especially with his Max HP evs, whilst at the same time being very strong offensively with two STAB 120 Power moves and the Versatile Earthquake or the Powerful but not veyr accurate Stone Edge that deals with his Flying weakness well. Focus Sash helps prevent an early Knockout, allowing at least one Bulk Up to come off without a hitch.
Quick Claw means Heracross can at times pull of a quick KO on the opponent.

Pretty much the set I wanted to give but with Sleep Talk over Pursuit. Pursuit hits like, Mismagius I guess but she almost always runs some substitute + CM / NP set so it's still useless. Sleep Talk allows you to come in on potent UU threats like Roserade, Tangrowth, and Venemoth with ease and begin firing off fast and powerful moves. And with this generation's new sleep mechanics, it works even better than before.

I suppose it would work out really nicely, since Choice Scarf + Guts + How common sleep is in UU = Pseudo Dragon Dance. Though I think Reno should say that he loses his role as a revenge killer.

A little modified Sub-Punch set.
Sub + Focus Punch is awesome, 125 base Attack combined with Moxie and STAB... it can smash through enemies. MH for strong second STAB, and Rest + Lum Berry in case things are going bad, and for restarting the cycle.

I know people are trying to be original, but you cannot make a poke with 125 attack and 40 special attack a special attacker. It's just such a waste, as it could be doing much more damage. Also, many sub/reversal pokes are screwed by weather, but does that make them bad? Every team you encounter is not gonna be sand, and if you're really worried, run drizzletoad with hera to- 1:weaken fire attacks and 2: no damage. The most dominant sets here seem to be banded and scarfed heras, the sub three attack hera, the 1 HP reversal hera, and set up hera. Toxic stall may be able to do something, as steel types don't like to switch in on a 125 atk poke with STAB CC, but I really don't think the specs would work. I did some calcs, and a choice specs max special attack modest hera's HYPER BEAM doesn't even kill an unown with some HP investment. Maximum damage: 282, Unown's max HP: 300, and that's UNOWN!!!!!!!!!!

You do know that when I listed that set, I specifically stated its uselessness multiple times, and that I only listed it to drive home the point that it should not be used for special attacking, right?

You do know that when I listed that set, I specifically stated its uselessness multiple times, and that I only listed it to drive home the point that it should not be used for special attacking, right?

There was no real need to post a set then if you wanted to prove that point. Doesn't matter though.
Oh, and on the toxic orb thing, I forgot something. Yes, flame orb does not lower your attack, however, toxic orb will actually do less damage then flame orb for the first three turns, so it's a great option on all out attacking sets, as you will usually switch before the damage wracks up. But on that set, I think it would actually be a better option to use flame orb, as you are trying to set up.

Edit: for some reason I confused hera with ursarang, idk why XD usually you should only use toxic orb on poison heal pokes and quick feet physical attackers, as quick feet doesn't cancel out burns attack halving effect, which is what ursarang has (quick feet boosts your speed with a status)

I sort of made my version/prediction of what this pokemon of the week is gonna look like HERACROSS

Heracross, the singlehorn pokemon. It gathers in forests to search for tree sap, its favorite food. To keep all the honey to itself, it hurls rivals away with its prized horn. With powerful legs and claws, it generates enough power to hurl foes over great distances. It loves sweet honey. It is usually docile, but if it is disturbed while sipping honey, it chases off the intruder with its horn.
OVERVIEW

If you are a fan of pinsir, you understand the hatred that many players have for heracross. Basically being a pinsir on steroids, heracross can wreak havoc on teams. It's attack stat extends beyond infinitum, and many people consider using it in ubers. Each generation seems to just make heracross better. In the second generation, heracross was introduced and was immediately became recognized as one of the strongest physical attackers in the game. Third gen brought it the blessing of guts and swords dance. Fourth gen brought it not only pursuit turning physical, allowing it to hit ghost types that used to be the bane of its existance, as well as choice scarf and choice band. And now we have fifth gen, with the biggest new asset being moxie, which allows heracross to be a much better revenge killer. Unfortunately, with this game the rest of the metagame, and heracross slowly fell to stronger and faster revenge killers (enter hydreigon and chandelure), and is now sitting in comfortably in the lesser tiers, where it can still wreck, just not at the same level it used to.

ABILITIES

Swarm: Probably the most useless heracross ability. Boosts your bug moves when weakened. Not bad, but far overshadowed by this next one.
Guts: This makes heracross scary strong. Base 125 attack gets boosted by 1.5 times? Yes please.
Moxie: Heracross's dream world ability allows it to function as a great choice scarfed revenge killer. Guts is still amazing though.

Heracross's only means of recovery is by rest, so why not give it a rest/talk set? Heracross is a great contender for rest/talk because while it's asleep you can use sleep talk to fire off guts boosted attacks (guts can be activated by sleep)+life orb depending on what item you're running. Megahorn and close combat are moves that you should run on almost any heracross, as they are both strong STAB physical attacks. As you will see, next to every heracross set runs these two moves. However here, we will be running low kick, as the subtracted defenses from close combat are unwanted.

This is probably the most effective heracross set out there. With choice scarf making up for your half-decent base speed, and choice band boosting your already high attack to ridiculous levels, whichever choice you make for an item will be a good one (no pun intended). The moveset has the obvious megahorn and close combat, as well as the last two moves being your choice. I basically listed heracross's best physical moves there (keep in mind that moves from the other options section are viable here as well), with one catch: retaliate. Retaliate works with any revenge killer as its base power doubles when a team mate was knocked out last turn, and guess what? This is a great revenge killer.

This set is much less useful then the other standard heracross sets, with the rise of hail and sand teams, as well as priority moves, but it still gets the job done. Basically you sub down to one hp (with an hp # divisible by four with a remainder of one, example: 305), and then fire off base 200 reversals and flails as your opponent quietly weeps into a pillow. Night slash is crucial on this set as it allows you to hit ghost types, which you would not be able to touch otherwise.The goliath beetle

This is just a standard guts abuser. Just hit everything with guts boosted attacks and wreck them. Moveset is standard, with two catches, the first one being: facade. Facade is a seventy base power move move that doubles in power if the user is statused. Facade is a move that should only be used on guts abusing sets, or else it's worthless. The same goes for the second one, protect. Protect is only used to activate your status orb for sure, and shouldn't be used on any non "orb" sets.

This is another standard heracross set (they're all very similar, if you haven't noticed yet), but with a catch: substitute. The idea is to switch hera in on something that can't touch it, like a blissey, sub on the switch, then get a free hit on whatever comes in while it breaks your sub. If they don't break your sub, they will be in a world of pain where there is nothing but darkness and hate and evil and all their worst fears all around them. That is all.

95 base special defense is functional off of, so putting some investment there allows hera to take some special hits. However, this leaves hera's defense at a not-so-great level. That's where iron defense comes in, boosting your defense two stages. Now you can begin to annoy your opponent-take off their item, then begin toxic stall them. Your last set is whatever you want. Protect to stall, substitute to avoid status and really become a pain to walls, or counter after a few boosts to hurt their physical attackers. Probably the last thing you want for your heracross out of all these sets, though.

One of the largest threats in the metagame if it sets up. Here's a helpful hint: don't let a pokemon with base 125 attack and guts and flame orb get plus two from swords dance. Moveset is standard, with facade for reasons mentioned before. This thing wrecks if it gets set up.

Heracross has another way to boost aside from swords dance. Although it doesn't give quite the offensive threat as swords dance, bulk up is still viable as it raises your defenses, meaning after a couple bulk ups, you can tank attacks, and hit hard. Moveset is standard, although low kick is better then close combat as it will lower your hard earned defensive stats.

EVS AND NATURES

I CAN SNORE AND KILL YOU
Max attack and adamant nature so you can do as much damage as possible. 192 hp to take some hits, and 64 speed to have a little speed.

What do you pick if death gives you two options?
Max attack and speed, the standard sweeper spread. The nature depends on if you want to have a little extra speed or a little extra KO'ing power.
It only makes me stronger...
Ditto above, but you're going to want the correct amount of hp IVs so that your hp is divisible by four with a remainder of 1 (example: 305).

Can't destroy all of me? How 'bout a quarter?
Still a sweeper spread, but put 12 of the attack evs into hp (as well as your four leftover evs).

GET WRECKED!!!!!!!!!slowly...
Max special defense and hp, as you don't need any physical defense thanks to iron defense.

Don't give a bug a sword!
Max attack and speed again. Nothing much to say here.

Steroids are unfair :'(
208 hp so you can "tank" after a few bulk ups. 104 attack to still hit hard, and 196 speed to still be kind of fast.
Other Options(still looking for more in this section)

Focus punch, brick break, revenge, shadow claw, aerial aceFocus punch can be used on a subpunching set.Brick break to destroy any screens your opponent has.Revenge, as heracross is relatively slow, so you have a reasonable chance of going second.Shadow Claw can be used, but there is really no reason to not use night slash over this.Aerial Ace this really messes up fighting types that heracross sometimes struggles dealing with *cough* conkeldurr *cough*.Double and Triple Battle Options

(need help here)

Partners

Anything that resists heracross's weaknesses is always good. Something like a heatran works great as it takes fire, psychic and flying attacks. Anything that passes speed is good as well, such as a ninjask (if ninjask passes +2 speed and a swords dance to hera, it's basically game over). Something that can paralyze opposing pokemon works just as well, such as a rotom w. Drizzletoad can work well with hera as it can weaken hera's fire weakness. The list of things that work well with him goes on and on. To wrap it up, something that can either resist hera's weaknesses or let hera outspeed opposing pokes is usually a good partner.
Countering heracross

Strength/Weakness facts:
Heracross is an excellent Pokemon when it comes to strengths. Out or 17 total types, 5 of them only do 1/2 of their original damage. Although extremely weak against Flying types (they do 4 times the original damage), it can learn some Rock type moves such as Stone Edge and Rock Slide to compete against the pesky Flying types.

Being that Heracross is a Bug/Fighting type, its extremely weak against Flying types. So if it knows the attack Stone Edge it will be able to easily combat Flying type opponents. I believe Heracross is meant to be all out offensive. It has great Attack Power, great Speed, pretty good Defense and Sp. Defense, and a fairly decent Sp. Attack.

Because Heracross has great Attack Power, it should know Close Combat and Focus Blast. Two very powerful Fighting Type moves. And its Hold Item should be the Black Belt to make those two moves even more powerful. As previously stated, it should also know the move Stone Edge. Due to its strong weakness to Flying type opponents, it should be able to stand up to them pretty good as well. And as for the attack Megahorn. Heracross is also a Bug type and Megahorn is pretty strong Bug type.

Possible Double Battle Partners:
The partners for Heracross would mostly depend on your opponents team. Here are an example of what I am talking about.

Explanation:
Since Heracross is part Bug type, if it used Megahorn against a Psychic type like Alakazam, it would do a great deal of damage due to the fact that Psychic types are weak against Bug types. And your teammate, Crawdaunt, it is a Water/Dark type. It would be a great match against the Fire type Typhlosion because it is weak against Water type moves. And Crawdaunt is a great Partner because it is also part Dark type. Meaning Alakazam's Psychic type moves would not effect it at all. Plus Psychic types are weak against Dark types as well.

Strength/Weakness facts:
Heracross is an excellent Pokemon when it comes to strengths. Out or 17 total types, 5 of them only do 1/2 of their original damage. Although extremely weak against Flying types (they do 4 times the original damage), it can learn some Rock type moves such as Stone Edge and Rock Slide to compete against the pesky Flying types.

Being that Heracross is a Bug/Fighting type, its extremely weak against Flying types. So if it knows the attack Stone Edge it will be able to easily combat Flying type opponents. I believe Heracross is meant to be all out offensive. It has great Attack Power, great Speed, pretty good Defense and Sp. Defense, and a fairly decent Sp. Attack.

Because Heracross has great Attack Power, it should know Close Combat and Focus Blast. Two very powerful Fighting Type moves. And its Hold Item should be the Black Belt to make those two moves even more powerful. As previously stated, it should also know the move Stone Edge. Due to its strong weakness to Flying type opponents, it should be able to stand up to them pretty good as well. And as for the attack Megahorn. Heracross is also a Bug type and Megahorn is pretty strong Bug type.

Possible Double Battle Partners:
The partners for Heracross would mostly depend on your opponents team. Here are an example of what I am talking about.

Explanation:
Since Heracross is part Bug type, if it used Megahorn against a Psychic type like Alakazam, it would do a great deal of damage due to the fact that Psychic types are weak against Bug types. And your teammate, Crawdaunt, it is a Water/Dark type. It would be a great match against the Fire type Typhlosion because it is weak against Water type moves. And Crawdaunt is a great Partner because it is also part Dark type. Meaning Alakazam's Psychic type moves would not effect it at all. Plus Psychic types are weak against Dark types as well.

What happens if alakazam outspeeds heracross and kills it with a psychic (which it almost always will)
Running focus blast is a bad option on heracross as you already have a fighting type move, and heracross only has base 40 special attack.
Also, black belt is not a great item - run toxic orb, so you can activate your guts and do more damage with fighting type moves then if you were holding the black belt.
And how does having good defenses make it an attacker?

Strength/Weakness facts:
Heracross is an excellent Pokemon when it comes to strengths. Out or 17 total types, 5 of them only do 1/2 of their original damage. Although extremely weak against Flying types (they do 4 times the original damage), it can learn some Rock type moves such as Stone Edge and Rock Slide to compete against the pesky Flying types.

Being that Heracross is a Bug/Fighting type, its extremely weak against Flying types. So if it knows the attack Stone Edge it will be able to easily combat Flying type opponents. I believe Heracross is meant to be all out offensive. It has great Attack Power, great Speed, pretty good Defense and Sp. Defense, and a fairly decent Sp. Attack. that's not fairly decent, and defenses don't decide if it is an attacker or not

Because Heracross has great Attack Power, it should know Close Combat and Focus Blast which isn't affected by attack. Two very powerful Fighting Type moves not counting cross' horrible spatk. And its Hold Item should be the Black Belt to make those two moves even more powerful iirc only 10% more powerful. As previously stated, it should also know the move Stone Edge. Due to its strong weakness to Flying type opponents, it should be able to stand up to them pretty good as well. And as for the attack Megahorn. Heracross is also a Bug type and Megahorn is pretty strong Bug type.

Possible Double Battle Partners:
The partners for Heracross would mostly depend on your opponents team. Here are an example of what I am talking about. well you don't know the opponent's team until you battle them, so definite partners are needed.

Explanation:
Since Heracross is part Bug type, if it used Megahorn against a Psychic type like Alakazam, it would do a great deal of damage due to the fact that Psychic types are weak against Bug types. And your teammate, Crawdaunt, it is a Water/Dark type. It would be a great match against the Fire type Typhlosion because it is weak against Water type moves. And Crawdaunt is a great Partner because it is also part Dark type. Meaning Alakazam's Psychic type moves would not effect it at all but ala wouldn't be using psychic on crawdaunt. Plus Psychic types are weak against Dark types as well.

Ninjask gives it the speed boost it needs, along with massive attack. Heatran absorbs Flying, Psychic, and Fire attacks, while Herecross resist Ground and Fighting for Heatran. It also takes Fight/Ground for tyranitar, along with bug. In the mean time, Tyranitar takes Flying/Psychic type moves. Rotom-W removes physical walls, and can spread paralysis to help Heracross move first. It also takes Fire/Flying moves. Heracross resist it's only weakness in the mean time.

If you are a fan of pinsir, you understand the hatred that many players have for heracross. Basically being a pinsir on steroids, heracross can wreak havoc on teams. It's attack stat extends beyond infinitum, and many people consider using it in ubers. Each generation seems to just make heracross better. In the second generation, heracross was introduced and was immediately became recognized as one of the strongest physical attackers in the game. Third gen brought it the blessing of guts and swords dance. Fourth gen brought it not only pursuit turning physical, allowing it to hit ghost types that used to be the bane of its existance, as well as choice scarf and choice band. And now we have fifth gen, with the biggest new asset being moxie, which allows heracross to be a much better revenge killer.

Don't know how much I like this overview. While Heracross received many blessings over the years, so did every other Pokemon out there. It is definitely worth noting that Heracross hit rock- bottom usage in Generation 4, because the metagame formed away from it. Nevertheless it's still a good Pokemon. My thoughts on some of the sets:

RestTalk- this set is actually really good, it was a premier Darkrai counter in Gen 4 and can be difficult to stop even now. I would change Close Combat to Brick Break or Low Kick, Close Combat's Defense Drops work against the goal of staying alive, despite being Heracross' top Fighting STABs.

Choice- the best set Heracross can run, can revenge kill Hydreigon, Latios, and other threats. Can be predictable but still very good.

Substitute- good idea, I'd never thought about that before but it makes for a nasty surprise for those expecting choice sets, because nothing's going to like getting hit with whatever Heracross has to offer, and they can't switch because they're under pressure to break the sub.

Guts Abuser-consider adding protect to the set to get a definite status condition on it.